Administrative Information

Access

Collection is open for use without restrictions

Use Restrictions

None.

Preferred Citation

Box/folder, Andrew J. Brent Papers, M 281, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell, Virginia Commonewealth University

Acquisition Information

The collection was donated to the Department by Mr. Brent in several installments.

Processing Information

Collection processed in 1991 and revised in 1992.

Biographical/Historical Information

Andrew J. Brent was a Richmond attorney who was active in community affairs in the city. He was also former director, general counsel and secretary of Media General Inc., the firm that owns the Richmond Times- Dispatch and other media outlets in the southeast.

"He was instrumental in the establishment [in 1969] of Media General," said J. Steward Bryan III, publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and chairman of Media General Inc. "In the mid-1960s, he was architect of the charter and by-laws of our company. The latter years of his life were devoted to metropolitan Richmond. He will be sorely missed, but his accomplishments will live on for decades to come."

A native of Richmond, Brent was born in 1919. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and graduated from its law school in 1941. Brent served as a naval intelligence officer during World War II. He began his law practice in Richmond in 1946 and became partner with the firm that became Christian, Barton, Epps, Brent & Chappell. He was active in community service in Richmond for four decades -- including work in the 1960s as chairman of the Greater Metropolitan Association, an organization formed to promote a Richmond-Henrico merger. In the 1970s he was a member of VCU's Board of Visitors (appointed in 1968, the year the university was founded) and president of the Downtown Development Unlimited, an organization that promoted private investment in the downtown Richmond. He also served as director and president of the Metropolitan Richmond Chamber of Commerce. He was also active in his church, St. James Episcopal Church in Richmond, serving terms as vestryman and warden. He died June 8, 1996.

Scope and Content Information

The collection consists of documents concerning Downtown Development Unlimited and Project One, Henrico County Annexation, RPI Foundation, RMA, Richmond Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Metropolitan Committee. The collection dates from the early 1960s through the early 1980s.

Eight volume bound set of court proceedings of the 1941 Annexation of Henrico by Richmond transferred to book collection.

Arrangement

The arrangement follows the donors folder endings and has been grouped according to general topic and alphabetically therein.

Series I--Downtown Development Unlimited (n.d., 1975-1987) Subseries A--Project One (n.d., 1971-1982)

Series II--Richmond Metropolitan Authority (n.d., 1967-1988)

Series III--Annexation of Henrico (n.d., 1961-1970)

Series IV--Richmond Chamber of Commerce (n.d., 1960-1976)

Series V--Richmond Professional Institute Foundation (n.d., 1970-1976)

Series VI--Greater Metropolitan Committee (n.d., 1960-1961)